Youth and elegant whimsy - photographs by Stephen Gwaltney

Western Winds.

The Rapture.

The Dreamer: Home.

The Dreamer: Portrait.

Beach.

Road.

The Dreamer: Wind.

If the World Turned Sideways.

The Hat Farmer.

Winnow.

Unhinged.

Carry On, Carry Efforts, Just Go.

The Light Project.

The End.

Alone.

Between Here and Heaven.

Adventure is out there. Go find it.

The Illusionist.

I really don't know anything about this photographer or his work. He has a page for his photography on Facebook, but hasn't posted anything for almost four years. It says there that he was born in 1992, and most of his images seem to be dated circa 2011-13. So this is the work of a twenty-year-old. The whimsy of a young man. Maybe this was just something he experimented with at the time... and then moved on. All I know is that he's handsome and that his work is well made and charming. And that's quite enough, I'd say.

A not terribly important royal union - guests at the wedding of Princess Pauline of Württemberg and Wilhelm Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Wied, Stuttgart, October 1898

(Left to right) - Front: King Wilhelm II of Württemberg (father of the bride); Princess Pauline of Württemberg; Hereditary Prince Wilhelm Friedrich of Wied.

Second row (Ladies): Princess Elisabeth of Wied; Princess Alexandra of Schaumburg-Lippe; Princess Luise of Wied; Princess Elisabeth of Waldeck; Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Teschen, Duchess Philipp of Württemberg* ; Queen Mother Emma of the Netherlands; Queen Charlotte of Württemberg (second wife of King Wilhelm II.); Princess Katharina of Württemberg (mother of King Wilhelm II.); Marie, Princess of Wied (mother of the groom); Duchess Hermine of Württemberg; Princess Maria Isabella of Saxony (wife of Prince Johann Georg, Duke of Saxony; daughter of Duke Philipp of Württemberg); Princess Pauline of Bentheim-Steinfurt; Duchess Margarete Sophie of Württemberg (wife of Duke Albrecht); Hereditary Grand Duchess Hilda of Baden (wife of Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich); Princess Bathildis of Schaumburg-Lippe; Helena, Duchess of Albany.

Third row (Gentlemen): Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.; Duke Robert of Württemberg (son of Duke Philipp); Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Urach; Prince Viktor of Wied; Prince Karl of Urach; Duke Ulrich of Württemberg (son of Duke Philipp); Duke Albrecht of Württemberg (son of Duke Philipp); Duke Philipp of Württemberg; Duke Nikolaus of Württemberg; Prince Johann Georg, Duke of Saxony; Prince Wilhelm of Wied (father of the groom); Prince Alexis of Bentheim-Steinfurt; Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden; Prince Wilhelm Ernst Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach*; Prince Wilhelm of Wied; Prince Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe.

* In spite of my quite remarkable talent for this sort of thing, and though she looks rather familiar, I've been unable to identify the lady whose name has been left off the list. But I was able to put a name to the one gentleman unaccounted for: Wilhelm Ernst, the very unpleasant last Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, "most unpopular prince in all Germany".

Update 3/14/2020: Thanks to a follower of this blog, I was finally able to identify the lady: Auguste, Princess Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who stands only a few feet away from her sister, Princess Katharina of Württemberg; as the kind reader mentioned, the two elderly sisters died just three days apart, only five weeks after the wedding.

Update 5/31/2020: Thanks to another follower of this blog, we've re-identified the lady. After I did a bit more research, it appears that she is Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Teschen, Duchess Philipp of Württemberg. The case for this identification is further bolstered by the fact that the lady is standing next to Duke Philipp and all four of their surviving children are also present.

Engagement portraits of the couple. (Two images.)

Princess Pauline of Württemberg (Pauline Olga Helene Emma von Württemberg; 19 December 1877, Stuttgart – 7 May 1965, Ludwigsburg), daughter of King Wilhelm II of Württemberg, by his first wife Princess Marie of Waldeck and Pyrmont; her mother died when Pauline was only four years old. (From her mother, she was first cousins with Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, among others.) As the King's only surviving child, she was the last Prinzessin von Württemberg, as well as the last senior member of the House of Württemberg. She was for many years the regional director of the German Red Cross, in several western Germany regions, before and during the Nazi régime. Three years after the end of the war, she was indicted by a United States Military Government court for "having concealed two prominent Nazis since October 1945." She admitted to having made living arrangements for Frau Scholtz-Klink - a fervent member of the Nazi Party and the leader of the National Socialist Women’s League - and her husband, SS Major General August Heissmayer, when they came to the Princess seeking shelter at the fall of the Reich. She was eventually given a stiff fine and would spend the last years of her life devoted to horse breeding.

In later life, Pauline showed a decided preference for quite mannish attire.

On 29 October 1898 she had wed Wilhelm Friedrich, Prince of Wied (Wilhelm Friedrich Hermann Otto Karl Fürst von Wied; 27 June 1872, Neuwied – 18 June 1945, Neuwied), eldest child of Wilhelm, Prince of Wied and his wife, Princess Marie of the Netherlands. (At the end of 1913, his younger brother - also named Wilhelm, confusingly - was chosen by the Great Powers to be the sovereign prince of the newly independent Albania; in March of 1914 he arrived in the country to begin a reign that would last exactly six months.) Wilhelm Friedrich became head of the Wied house at his father's death in 1907; in 1919, when all titles were abolished in Germany, he retained the courtesy title of Fürst (Prince). When he died - just as the war ended - the title passed to his grandson.

Portrait taken at the time of his engagement.

Together, Pauline and Wilhelm had two sons, Hermann (18 August 1899 – 5 November 1941), and Dietrich (30 October 1901 – 8 June 1976). Both married and had issue. Hermann, the elder son, died in Poland of wounds received in action during World War II; his son, Friedrich Wilhelm, succeeded to the the princely title at the death of his grandfather.

With - presumably - their first born, Hermann, 1899.

The couple with their sons, her father and stepmother. (Two images.)

Princess Pauline with her sons, her father and stepmother.

The couple, their two sons, their daughters-in-law, and grandsons. Seated second from left is Pauline's stepmother, Queen Charlotte of Württemberg. There
is some confusion because of the dates listed here; the years are wrong. This particular Wilhelm of Wied - Dietrich's  third son - was born on 24 August 1936.
(Sadly, he died on the following 13 April, as is noted here.) I haven't been able to identify the lady in the middle - perhaps she's the other grandmother - nor
the woman standing at left. But the white-haired gentleman holding the infant... is the baby's grandmother, Princess Pauline.

Twelve miniature portraits of the Zubov / Suvorov family, unknown artists, late eighteenth - early nineteenth centuries

The various artists are unknown.

These twelve miniatures represent various members of the family of Count Nikolai Zubov (1763-1805) and his wife, Natalia Zubova, née Suvorova (1775-1844). Alexander Suvorov was one of the greatest military leaders in Russian history; Nikolai Zubov served under him and married his only daughter, Natalia. Both families benefited when, at only twenty-two, Nikolai's younger brother Platon became the final favorite of Catherine the Great and, contrary to expectation, instead of being a passing fancy of the aged monarch, soon found himself the most powerful man in Russia; he was made a prince, and his brothers, counts. Catherine's death in 1796 meant exile for both Platon and Nikolai. Platon would die in exile, but Nikolai returned to Russia five years later as one of the conspirators in the murder of Emperor Paul. He survived the tsar by just four years, dying at the age of only forty-two.

General Alexander Suvorov (1730-1800) and his wife, Varvara Suvorova, née Prozorovskaia (1750-1806), parents of Natalia Zubova.

Presumably Avdotya Suvorova, née Manukova (?-circa 1740), and Vasily Suvorov (1705-1775), parents of Alexander Suvorov.

Arkady Suvorov (1780-1811), son of Alexander Suvorov, brother of Natalia Zubova.
Count Nikolai Zubov (1763-1805), husband of Natalia Zubova, née Suvorova.

Natalia Zubova, née Suvorova (1775-1844), daughter of Alexander Suvorov, wife of Count Nikolai Zubov, sister of Arkady Suvorov.
Prince Platon Zubov (1767-1822), brother of Count Nikolai Zubov and - famously - the last favourite of Catherine II.

Presumably the sons of Count Nikolai Zubov and Natalia Zubova: Alexander (1797-1875), Platon (1798-1855)... 

... And Valerian (1804-1857). Count Alexander Zubov (1727-1795), father of Nikolai and Platon Zubov.

Ladies of leisure, at leisure - a selection of paintings by Sir John Lavery

Mrs. Osler, Cap d'Antibes, 1929.

Lady Astor playing golf at North Berwick, 1921.

The Green Sofa (Mary Auras), 1903.

My Studio Door, Tangier, 1920.

Lady in Red (Mrs. Owen Barton Jones), 1924.

The Hall of Argyll House, Chelsea, London - with Syrie Maugham and Sibyl Colefax, 1930.

Miss Rosemary Hope-Vere and Bacchus, 1929.

Bacchus!

Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, 1931. (Study for "Their Majesties' Court, Buckingham Palace", now lost.)

Madame Leo d'Erlanger, 1931. (Study for "Their Majesties' Court, Buckingham Palace", now lost.)

The Red Hat (Lady Lavery, the artist's wife, in a Mayfair Drawing Room), 1925.

In Morocco, 1913.

Lady Lavery, 1922.

Mary Borden and her family at Bisham Abbey, 1925.

Cynthia Zur Nedden, 1931.

A Lady in Black (Jean Ainsworth, Viscountess Massereene and Ferrard), 1917.

Cap d'Ail, 1921.

A Fair Spaniard (Mrs. Gerard Chowne), 1909.

The Spanish Hat (Mrs. Gerard Chowne), 1909.

Mrs. Rosen's Bedroom, 1926.

Alice on Sultan, Tangier, 1913.

Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs, 1938.

Miss Diana Dickinson, the artist's granddaughter, 1934.

Viscountess Wimborne, 1937.